Surgery patients: differences

The length of time taken to recovery was recorded for patients randomly assigned and subjected to two different surgical procedures. The data (recorded in days) are given below:

Procedure 1
n =23
x = 7.3
s^2 =1.23


Procedure 2
n =21
x = 8.9
s^2 =1.49


a) Test (at alpha=1) whether it is reasonable to use an equal variances test of the difference between the means. (Use the F-test)


b) Do the data provide evidence to indicate a difference between the mean recovery times for the two surgical procedures? Use alpha=0.05
Make sure you use the correct test following your conclusion from part a)

how would i do the test for a)?

for b) i know how to do this when alpha is at 0.1, but how do i do this at 0.05 since there's no F table for 0.025.